The Miami Restaurant We All Want to Be at Right This Very Second

This post originally appeared on January 13, 2018, in Amanda Kludt’s newsletter “From the Editor,” a roundup of the most vital news and stories in the food world each week. Read the archives and subscribe now.

So, by the end of day Tuesday, I have to complete a somewhat intimidating 7-page corporate document for our publisher and CEO about the “programs, products, and initiatives” that we plan to focus on, as well as the “major operational risks” we face, along with goals and KPIs and all that jazz. It’s not the most fun weekend activity to loom over you, but I’m actually happy to do all this plotting with a clear head, two weeks after New Year’s Day, instead of during the holiday nuttiness.

We spend so much of December at Eater (on both the edit and revenue sides) wrapping up 2017. At this point in Jan, we have a general idea of tentpoles we will hit — the Young Guns in the summer, the Eater Awards in December, James Beard coverage in May, ongoing content we’ve sold, etc. etc. — but there are exciting initiatives big and small that we’re just starting to talk about now.

Last week, we agreed on the next major international travel guide destination (stay tuned for April, but I can promise there will be wine and carbs). This week I’ve been fielding all kinds of ideas from interesting people about what to do with a kitchen space we operate on the edge of Manhattan’s Chinatown (related: would you go to an Eater Salon?). Last Monday, we moved two of our ace storytellers into a new team focused solely on high-concept projects. Meanwhile, I’m dreaming up a new Big Project that’s going to take us all year and will probably be a nightmare, but in the end, if we pull it off, will be something really special.

That is a long-winded and navel-gazing way of saying: if you haven’t thought much about what you want your 2018 to look like, this is as good a weekend as any to ponder it. (Think of the first half of the month as recovery for an intense 2017.) Annnnd if you have any ideas for what you’d like to see on Eater in 2018, now is an even better time than usual to make a suggestion to me at amanda@eater.com.

Opening of the week: Amara at Paraiso, Miami

Photo by Nick Garcia

Damn, this new Michael Schwartz restaurant looks nice. Looking at it through grimy, snow-tinted lenses, I would very much like to be sitting on one of those white couches on the patio drinking punch and eating banana leaf-wrapped cobia right now. And I wasn’t even the hugest fan of Michael’s Genuine.

On Eater

• Intel: Chrissy Teigen is the new face of McDonald’s dollar menu; Elon Musk wants to build a retro carhop restaurant with Tesla charging stations; Babbo’s longtime head chef is out following accusations of sexual misconduct, while Mario Batali’s restaurant empire plans a name change; LA chef Roy Choi’s Vegas project sounds incredible; Dominique Crenn’s Bar Crenn will pay homage to the top chefs of France; Diet Coke is desperately trying to be the next LaCroix; PDX star Maya Lovelace’s new fried chicken-centric southern spot will be called Yonder; the owners of SF’s Four Barrel Coffee will rename the company and shift ownership to employees after a harassment lawsuit; a new restaurant and boutique hotel is coming to Austin; LA’s NoMad will open for business January 21; PDX’s Gabriel Rucker is plotting a new French spotnext to Le Pigeon; Amazon Prime customers can now order delivery from Whole Foods; a bartender who worked at her restaurant for four months is suing rising star chef Angie Mar; the Philly-based vegan power couple behind Vedge is opening a new spot in D.C.; the staff at soon-to-close Houston spot Underbelly will get tattoos of the restaurant’s logo; Boston is getting some ax-throwing bars, too; and Daniel Patterson and chef Nigel Jones’ Caribbean Kaya is now open in Oakland.
• Review: Three stars for Oaxacan restaurant Claro in Brooklyn.
• Ooh la la: Erik Anderson’s fancy new menu at fancy SF spot COI.
• The 19 most anticipated restaurants of 2018.
• How NY’s fast-food workers are figuring out a way to organize, since they can’t legally unionize.

This week on the Upsell

Photo by Gary He

My co-host Dan and I talked to photojournalist Gary He about his reporting trip to Mosul, Iraq, shortly after the fall of ISIS. His photo essay from the trip, on how restaurants are rebuilding in the city, ran on Eater back in December.

Off Eater

• Domino’s stock price rose 1,300 percent over the course of eight years. [Recode]
• Very pleased that Tejal Rao resisted the temptation to call chef Angie Mar a “badass” — a designation she seems to acquire in every story written about her — in this lovely piece. [NYT]
• Personal essays, photos, and illos from women across the industry tackling sexual harassment and more. [Cherry Bombe]
• Incredible that Danny Meyer is the only man who would speak to Grub Street about harassment in the restaurant industry. [Grub Street]
• A day in the life of a dim sum cart. [Serious Eats]
• Making the cinnamon rolls from Mario Batali’s sexual misconduct apology letter. (P.S. I recently heard a rumor that a crisis manager was responsible for putting the recipe in there to change the tenor of the conversation around him from “he’s a predator” to “he’s an idiot,” which… of course.) [Everywhereist/Medium]
• Why the Instant Pot is so well suited to Indian cooking. [The New Yorker]

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